Prisoners of war
by HatakeKaede-san
Summary: It s been over 10 years since the wizarding world had been at war the last time. In order to prepare the young generation for the approaching war Dumbledore calls for help from Konohagakure- enter Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi. ON  HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don´t own Naruto or HP.

**CHAPTER I**

Dumbledore starred at the young boy standing in front of the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf. The boy couldn´t have been much older than 10 years, 12 at most, even much younger than his own favorite student Harry Potter who was about to turn 15. Surely his old friend Sarutobi had to be kidding or maybe the work load has finally made him go mental, well more mental than Dumbledore himself was.

„Sarutobi-sama, no offense, but when we first talked I had someone different in my mind for this task," he slowly started trying not to offend his old friend and they young shinobi in the room, Of course he knew that things worked different in this world than they did with the magical folks and that it was common practice for young ninja to finish their education as young as 12, or even younger when it came to a few exceptions- the natural geniuses, but even if the boy had graduated younger than 12 it was unlikely that he was any higher rank than genin. A beginner ninja who was taking part in easy task. However the mission he was offering was by no means an easy task. He was hoping to get an ANBU or at least a bunch of jounin.

„Different? Different how?" the young boy asked politely yet giving him a cold glare his eyes turning crimson red with three tomoes.

Dumbledore stayed calm as he was no stranger to the secrets of the shinobi world and immediately realizing that this kid was a part of the famed Uchiha clan. Though to have activated the Sharingan at such an early age he had to be considered a tensai- genius even by the standards of his almighty clan.

„Well, no offense as I said, but in our world you probably wouldn´t even be old enough to start your education and...," Dumbledore start but Sarutobi cut him off.

„Albus, as you know things are different in our world. I know that you might see things different than we do here and by your standards Itachi-kun might seem unfit for this task...however in our lands we tend to measure by strength and wit rather than age and I assure you that Itachi-kun here possesses skills rivaled by few not only in our village, but also in others..." Sarutobi explained preventing Dumbledore from arguing his further points. With that said the Hokage turned to the young Uchiha. „Itachi-kun, if I´m not mistaken you intend to try and join the ANBU soon?"

„Hai, Hokage-sama," the boy bowed slightly and spoke to the head of his village with such respect that he probably reserved for very few people of this world Dumbledore assumed.

„In that case it´s settled. You are the best person for this mission and I´ve arranged matters so that it would benefit you too, Itachi. This is not a solo mission, you´ll be accompanied by a former ANBU captain, who will help you with your training, so that you can join the ANBU as soon as you return. Based on your progress so far you might even become a captain in less than a year...,"

Dumbledore smiled, he could for sure count on his old friend Sarutobi to make all the parties involved happy. Not that he doubted the skills of the young prodigy, but he was much happier indeed to have someone much older with ANBU experience in charge of the whole mission. Dumbledore was torn out of his thoughts as a young man erupted from a poof of smoke. He had spiky silver hair, most of his face was covered in a black mask, his hitaite covering one of his eyes and in his hand an orange novel that he seemed to be completely lost in. All in all he gave Dumbledore the impression of a lazy excuse of a shinobi. And while he was certainly older than Itachi, he wasn´t older by that much. Surely this couldn´t be the former ANBU captain Sarutobi spoke off. But then he noticed the young Uchiha who was looking at the newcomer with eyes full of respect.

„Yo! You called for me Hokage-sama?" the silver haired man greeted without looking up from his novel.

„Kakashi-senpai," the young Uchiha bowed his head slightly.

„I did call you indeed Kakashi-kun, about two hours ago," he added scolding one of his best young ninja slightly.

„Ano sa," Kakashi scratched the back of his head with his left hand: „you see I found this little kitten that seemed to be lost on my way here, so I had to help the poor little things," he gave his apology in his most serious tone of voice.

This led the occupants to reactions of a various kind, Dumbledore who met with Kakashi´s antics for the first time simply chuckled, while the hokage way too tired of even trying to scold his subordinate about his constant lateness and poor excuses after putting up with it for years now just sighed while Itachi shook his head and remarked „That´s a lie, Kakashi-senpai,"remembering his late goofy distant cousins Obito and his poor excuses way too well.

„Haha," Kakashi smiled sheepishly, but then he closed his book and put his way into his uniform, turning to his serious self. „So, Hokage-sama, why have you called us here."

„Right. Kakashi, this is Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, an old friend of mine. He has requested a mission and I..."

„Sumimasen, Hokage-sama, but did you just say Witchcraft and Wizzardry?"

„Yes, Albus, maybe you would like to explain this," he turned to the wizard.

„Of course, it would be my pleasure. I have come from a different dimension than yours. Where I come from we use what you call chakra differently, we call it magic and we manipulate it using our wands," he took out his wand after the boys gave him a puzzled look. „Anyway, unlike shinobi of the Hidden villages we wizards do not fight much and most of what we teach our children has nothing to do with combat. For the most part we live in peace, however right now we´re at the brink of the war after almost 14 years of peace. During this time we have grown extremely comfortable and few of us could properly deal with a threat. That´s why I have turned to my old friend Hokage-sama for help and have requested some of his best shinobi for a special mission. Sarutobi, I suppose you´d like to explain the details of the mission yourself," he gestured to the other old man.

„Yes, but I guess I should properly introduce them first. This is Hatake Kakashi, 19 years old, current rank jounin however he was a captain of a ANBU squad and he only retired from his duties as such recently. And this is Uchiha Itachi, the heir to the famed Uchiha clan, 11 years old, he was just promoted to jounin and as you´ve already heard he plans to join the ANBU soon himself. Now to your mission, it will consist of two equally important parts. First one is to protect one boy Poteru Hari, who plays a very significant role in their war..."

Itachi interrupted him: „ So our mission is to babysit some gaki?"

Kakashi forcibly coughed probably trying to hide his chuckling at the fact that a kid was complaining about having to babysit some other kid Dumbledore guessed.

„As I said this child plays a huge role in the matters of their world, he is four years older than you Itachi...anyway, that´s not all, why you´re to keep your eyes on him, your mission is also to protect the school and its other occupants from other outside harm. Furthermore there is a second part to your mission, as Albus explained in their world they haven´t been at war for long years and they are all unprepared, you both know what war is like, so the 2nd part of your mission is to prepare the youngsters of the wizarding community for war. You might even teach them some jutsu if you feel it´s necessary, but I have to warn you that few of them seem to display much talent when it comes to using chakra our way. However that is no different when it comes to a ninja trying to use wand magic and that´s why I have selected the two of you for this task. You both have excelled in our world, so it is likely that you´ll be able to exhibit similar talent in their world as well. Also as you both posses the Sharingan you can learn their language in an instant, which makes it easier and your eyes might even be a help while using the wand magic who knows...Kakashi, you´ve failed two genin teams in a row after becoming a jounin instructor, but someone will pass your test eventually, so you can use this as an opportunity to practice your teaching skills. And Itachi here wishes to join the ANBU soon and while not denying his powers I don´t think he´s ready for that yet, but a year of training under a former ANBU captain could do the trick for sure..."

Kakashi questioningly looked from the hokage to the young boy and he sheepishly asked: "Hokage-sama, no offense, but I´m sure the Uchiha clan won´t be too happy about their heir to work ad train under someone like me for a whole year."

„Kakashi, the Uchiha clan might not be too happy about that, however I´m the leader of this village and I decide who goes to on what mission...so unless young Itachi himself here minds...?"

Itachi shook his head, giving Kakashi a small smile: „Kakashi-senpai, while my clan and my otou-san might believe differently, I assure you that I´m not one to judge people by their blood, clans or family ties. Your powers and talents are rivaled by very few even in the famed Uchiha clan."

Dumbledore would swear he heard a snort when Itachi said famed.

„In that case everything´s settled. You will leave with Dumbledore here this evening, I´ll give you some time to say sour good byes before you leave, you will meet Dumbledore at the memorial stone at 8 pm. And Kakashi try not to be late for once, getting to Hogwarts could become troublesome if you are," he sent him a warning look.

„Hai, Hokage-sama."

„You´re dismissed."

Itachi turned to the door waiting for Kakashi to join him, but the silver haired jounin had different intentions: „Go ahead, Itachi-kun, I have something I wish to discuss with Hokage-sama in private. I will come pick you up this evening."

When the door closed behind Itachi, Kakashi turned to his leader and with a somber expression he asked: „Hokage-sama, if you don´t mind asking me what are your motives behind this? Is this about Orochimaru?"

Dumbledore noticed the changed in the young man compared to what he looked when he first arrived, he was alert in full serious Kakashi mode. Orochimaru he said? Dumbledore seemed to remember that name, oh yes right, he was one of Sarutobi´s former students, one of the three sannin, who had left the village after committing numerous evil deeds. He wasn´t that different from his own former student when he thought about that. They even had the snake thing in common.

Sarutobi studied his young subordinates face: „So you figured it out, Kakashi? As expected from you...I received a message some weeks ago from Jirayia..."

„Jirayia-sama? So he´s still trying to track Orochimaru down...?

„Yes. Anyway Jirayia received Intel that Orochimaru was planning a plot to kidnap Itachi. Itachi is very strong for his age, but even he couldn´t win against Orochimaru...not yet at least...I realized it is too dangerous to send Itachi on missions here, but his clan wouldn´t accept it if their most talented prodigy was to be hidden and protected...that s why when I heard from Dumbledore I considered his request the perfect opportunity...for a year Itachi could be safe and sound in a world that Orochimaru doesn´t even exist...and not only that in that one year he can become strong enough to protect himself from Orochimaru...I picked you to be his mentor, because I trust you more than any other Sharingan user in this village, Kakashi...However, I also believe this mission can do you some good as well...you´ve been in the ANBU for years and I think you need to use this mission to fully return to the world of the living...One last thing, Kakashi, for now I believe that Orochimaru has no means to get to Albus´ world, however things might change...if this were to happen, I order you not to even try and fight him yourself, depending on your situation immediately call for reinforcements or rather retreat and abandon the mission."

„Abandon the mission, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked disbelief in his eyes. While he no longer was the kind of scum who would follow the rules no matter what, this still sounded unbelievable coming out of the hokage´s mouth in front of his customer no less.

„Yes, abandon the mission. The safety of Konoha lies ahead of any mission and Albus here is kind enough to understand that. You´re dismissed, Kakashi."

„Hai, Hokage-sama, Dumbledore-san," he bowed to the two men before disappearing in a poof of smoke.

* * *

><p>Five year old Sasuke was on the verge of tears. He couldn´t believe that his aniki would have to leave him for such a long time. A whole year, by the time he returned Sasuke would probably be ready to start at the Konoha Academy.<p>

„Sasuke, a shinobi must not cry," his older brother scolded the child but was unable to hide his smile.

Sasuke tried to stop the stream of his tears as hard as he could and spoke up: „Demo, aniki...you´re leaving for so long...I was hoping you´d play with me tonight...and now we won´t play for a year..."

Itachi gestured with his hand, calling his Brother to come closer, as he poked his forehead with two fingers.

„Itte," Sasuke cried out touching his forehead.

"Yuruse Sasuke... Mata kondo da." Itachi smiled at his Brother. „Maybe we can arrange a visit, so you´ll be able to come and see me during their holidays. What do you think, okasan?"

„We´ll see," Uchiha Mikoto smiled at her two sons.

* * *

><p>When Dumbledore arrived at the memorial stone he was surprised to find Kakashi there already waiting.<p>

„I´m surprised, I didn´t expect you to be here so early."

Kakashi smiled at him sadly touching some names at the monument carefully with his fingers: „I´ve come early, so I could say my good-byes before we leave."

Dumbledore studied the young man in front of him with a somber question, not pushing further with any questions not wanting to prey. It didn´t take long and they could hear a young child shouting: „Kashi no niichan!"

They both turned to see Itachi arriving accompanied by a woman, probably his mother and a small boy no older than five who had to be Itachi´s younger brother.

Kakashi slightly ruffled the young boy´s hair: „Sasuke-chan, Mikoto-san," he greeted Sasukeś family.

Mikado smiled greeting the copy nine and the stranger, unlike most of the Uchiha clan she had taken an immediate liking to the boy and was not happy about the way her fellow clansmen including her husband treated him going as far as calling him a thief. Then again she was one of the few in the clan that was very fond of the goofy Uchiha Obit, so it was no wonder she had a soft spot for his best friend and rival.

„Kakashi-san, I´ve come here to ask you a favor. Please promise me you will make sure our Itachi will be okay."

„I promise."

„Taku, kaa-san, I´m not a kid anymore."

„I know, Itachi. But it still doesn´t stop me from worrying about you. So don´t forget to eat well and wash your teeth regularly and above anything don´t forget to write to you kaa-san"

„Hai, hai," the young ninja said hugging his mother. Then he ruffled Sasuke´s hair: „Otouto, train hard and get stronger while I´m not here."

„Hai!" Sasuke replied flashing a big smile.

„And in return I will try to arrange for your visit, ne?" he turned to Dumbledore.

„I´m sure we´ll be able to arrange that," he smiled. „But we really have to go now. This is a portkey," he explained pulling an old magazine out of his robes. Please touch it at least with one fingers..."

* * *

><p>Reviews are appreciated :D<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Believe it or not I still don´t own Naruto or HP.

A/N: This story is set during OotP in HP however it might be very different from the actual book not because I don´t remember the way events unfolded there, but because for a big part it just doesn´t fit with this story. So be aware of AU. Similar goes for the two Naruto characters. Thanks to everyone who read/favorited/alerted this story and special thanks to the DEVIL might care but I don´t (I´m not planning to abandon this;) and to Lightningscar (you know that I don´t know why but insight into thoughts and state of mind seems to be the easiest thing to write for me, it just somehow comes naturally- I guess it´s because I spend way too much time thinking eh overthinking things myself…) for reviewing.

**CHAPTER II**

The trio arrived to the darkness of London. If either of the two young shinobi was experiencing any of the usual unpleasant effects of travel by portkey they seemed to be hiding them well. Both quickly got up on their feet and carefully observed their surroundings. Dumbledore started to dig into the pockets of his robe looking for the small piece of parchment, when he finally got it he turned to the two ninja: "You´ll need to memorize what´s written here."

Itachi however was looking at the place were 12 Grimmauld place was with his eyes turned crimson red and just smiled: "There´s no need. I can see through it."

So this is the power of the Sharingan Dumbledore mused.

"Well, maybe for you, Itachi. For me there´s no need to waste so much of my chakra for something that can easily be achieved in another way," Kakashi commented as he took the piece of parchment from Dumbledore and read " The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London." Without any further comment as he was smart enough not to bring up something that Dumbledore was obviously trying very hard to keep secret so out in the open, he focused his one eye on the place where both Itachi and Dumbledore were looking.

"After you," Dumbledore smiled at the two young shinobi.

* * *

><p>"Hey guys, it seems our two awaited guests have finally arrived...you know the two ninja that Dumbledore hired from that long lost place...," Fred announced barging into Harry´s and Ron´s room at 12 Grimmauld place. "Let´s go and greet them properly," George added giving them a devious plan making them realize that the Weasley twins would be quick to make the newcomers aware of their prankster nature.<p>

"Yeah, let´s go," Ron said replying quickly not wanting to witness yet another of Harry´s angry outbursts that had become a pretty regular occurrence lately and he was very well aware that his best friend was not at all in favor of Dumbledore´s actions. "Let´s tell Hermione and Ginny on our way too," he added.

Before the boys now accompanied by the two girls as well even arrived downstairs they could already hear the reactions that the newcomers caused. As per usually the portrait of Sirius´ mothers had a few warm and welcoming words to say to the new faces but its outrage about scum, murderers and monsters got totally lost in the cry of the Weasley´s mother.

"You can´t be serious Dumbledore, they´re both still kids...,"

Even though Ron Weasley was aware that his mother tended to overreact when it came to matters as such he had to agree with her for once. Well, maybe the older of the two boys could be an adult already even though he still was barely older than Fred and George; the younger one was a totally different case.

"Sumimasen, Weasley-san, but our worlds are different and you should respect that. In your world I might be considered to be someone who´s barely become an adult and Itachi here might be considered a small child, but in our world I have been a legal adult for more than 14 years and Itachi has been one for over 4 years now," the older of the ninja spoke up politely.

"B-but he doesn´t even seem to be old enough to be a Hogwarts´ student...," Ron couldn´t hold it any longer and commented.

The small child turned to look at him and his eyes turned to crimson red from its previous dark black color and in an instant almost faster than light he was standing behind Ron holding what seemed to be something similar to a knife against his throat. The boy spoke up in a completely calm tone despite the situation ignoring Mr. Wesaley´s, Ginny´s and Hermione´s shrieks of horror: "You shouldn´t judge people by what they look like, wizard. After all what you see with your eyes might all be just a mirage. You looked at me and assumed that I was weak and helpless because my appearance is one of a mere child. The truth however is that someone like me could take care of someone like you without even moving a muscle. Yes, someone like you could be taken care of with a simple genjutsu that I was able to cast already 4 years ago."

"That´s enough, Itachi. No need to scare our clients, don´t you think?" the other ninja in the room who let his younger companion speak out his mind commented while not even looking up from his book.

Now, this is our opening- George and Fred smiled at each other.

"Hai, Kakashi-senapi," Itachi obeyed his orders, but he didn´t refrain from commenting: "However I think you already know that my intention wasn´t to scare our guests, but merely to show them the reality. Isn´t that a part of our mission too after all?"

"Hai, Hai," Kakashi smiled.

Before anyone in the room could even blink an eye Kakashi was suddenly holding the two Weasley twins with his hands around their throats as he commented: "Hmmm, it seems the two of you weren´t listening to what Itachi just said. Whatever you were planning against the two of us whether it be a prank or something else I suggest you drop it. As you must have seen there´s a huge drop between your skill and ours. I hear you kids all wanna fight in this war that´s about to start in your world. In that case it seems that we have loads to teach them, Itachi. Lesson number one, remember it well please, never overestimate your power and never underestimate your enemy even if it were to be a small bug."

"Well then, I should get going, I have a meeting to attend, "Dumbledore gave his good-byes and disappeared into the darkness of London.

The room had turned completely silent after his departure but it was not to stay so for long as it was disrupted by one of Harry´s outbursts.

"How come they get to become a part of the Order and get to fight and we don´t. It was me who saw Cedric die and who witnessed HIM to come back," he roared.

"So you saw someone die and you believe that justifies your claim to be there and fight? Don´t be ridiculous, kid," Kakashi growled.

"So you think we shouldn´t get to fight?" Harry angrily counter attacked.

"No, I don´t think you should be allowed to fight if you have to yet achieve the necessary skills to be able to fight without unnecessary losses. Idiots who overrate their own powers usually get not only themselves but also others killed," this finally made Harry shut up even though everyone could see that his anger wasn´t gone yet at all.

"Dinner´s ready, so you all can come to the kitchen. I will show the two of you your room after we´re finished, " Mrs. Weasly broke the silence and her voice showed that she too wasn´t happy with Dumbledore´s decision and with the way events unfolded and her voice might have been slightly harsher and colder than usually when she spoke to the two ninja as they had both somewhat attacked her children. It was true that the kids needed to be put into their place when it came to the exact reasons why they shouldn´t be allowed to fight, but there were other far less violent methods and she wasn´t exactly happy that it were two other kids who had taken over this task. She might have seen their skills and had to confess that they definitely were strong, probably way too strong for anyone but Dumbledore and a few others to handle in the Order, but she still couldn´t help it and not see a child and a young man not much older than her own youngest boy.

"Oi, what´s happening here?" Sirius commented as he came down the stairs. "I´ve been feeding Buckbeak and he got all uncomfortable by all the noise," he turned his attention to the two new faces: "Ahh, I see, that´s it, our long awaited guests have finally arrived.

* * *

><p>The following day the two ninja joined Mrs. Weasley, Sirius and the kids in their efforts to get the Blacks house clean. A task that at times might have seemed impossible, but in the end quite a few of the ninjas´ jutsus were found to be rather useful in the cleaning process. Like when Itachi got rid of a seemingly innocent but according to his Sharingan rather dangerous piece of parchment with his Katon: Gokayu no jutsu. This of course earned him the praise and awe of the young wizards and witches. He smiled as he thought that the only one whom he knew in the shinobi world who´d be in awe after a demonstration of such a simple jutsu would be his little brother and other young genin shinobi wannabes. Of course he didn´t enclose this piece of information to the wizards as he gave the boys a few more demonstrations and explained chakra manipulation to a very excited Hermione. Despite the original feelings the kids quickly grew fond of the small child who was probably stronger than all of them combined and at least as smart as Hermione if not even smarter. Things were different with Kakashi however. For one thing the older shinobi mostly spent his time with the adults, but it also was because things were still hostile between Harry and him with neither side showing any sign of a wish for improvement and therefore Itachi decided to take matters into his own hands when he was alone with Harry and his two friends.<p>

"Don´t be angry with Kakashi-senpai or me, Harry. You might not realize it yet, but everyone here means only well for you. Do not interrupt me and listen to what I have to say please…," he held up his hand when he saw that Harry was about to start his own argument.

"There´s no denying that you had lots of terrible things happen to you and that you witnessed some horrible things, but without wanting to boast about it, the truth is that for every bad thing or bad sighting you have seen we have both been through or seen ten things as bad or even worse as you have. And despite everything we have managed to survive through it all so far. Because we were the ones talented and trained enough to be able to take part in our fights and survive. Unlike others who weren´t prepared enough to fight…..just try to think about it, Harry, please," Itachi finished as he bowed his head and disappeared in a poof of smoke to take part in the Order´s meeting.

* * *

><p>"Itachi, let me handle the talking here," Kakashi told his younger teammate in their own language before the meeting started and before the young Uchiha could protest he added: "I know you´re a smooth talker and you could handle it, but I believe the people in this world will be much more willing to respect an explanation coming from someone older than you. With that said I have a task for you, I need you to watch everyone who attends the meeting very carefully."<p>

"Wakarimashita," Itachi replied.

The kitchen of 12 Grimmauld place slowly got packed by the Members of the Order and the meeting started with introductions. As Dumbledore wasn´t taking part in it a man called Remus Lupin took over it. Kakashi shared a look with Itachi to see whether he too had noticed the chakra of this man that seemed to be somehow different from the other wizards. Itachi just curtly nodded his head to show his acknowledgment of this fact. Kakashi sighed as he listened to the member's reactions to meeting Itachi and him. In a way they weren´t much different from the ones they got the day before. For a slight moment he wondered whether Dumbledore hadn´t planned his absence from the meeting on purpose just so he could see how they could handle the situation. Well, it didn´t matter now anyway.

"But they´re so young," commented a witch with bubbly gum pink hair who seemed to be one of the youngest between the wizards in the room alongside with one of Mrs. Weasley´s older sons Bill.

"Funny coming from you," Kakashi chuckled. "You don´t seem to be much older than I. Anyway as it has already been explained and demonstrated to some of you, where we come from talent and wisdom is valued above age and therefore we are both more than capable of handling this task. Also, you all have been living in peace for so long and some of you," he looked at the woman with bubbly pink hair and Bill:"have never even fought in a war before. We both have seen the destruction that a war causes, we have both seen comrades die and we have both shed the enemy's blood in battle before. Therefore I believe that we can be a valuable asset to you not only by protecting the school and the Potter brat, but also in teaching you and especially your children what it really means to take part in a war. Their education seems to have been incredibly neglected in this aspect," Kakashi finished.

The room fell into silence digesting the young ninja´s words, the only one who couldn´t stay silent being Snape.

"How can we now we can trust you?" he questioned.

"That´s somewhat of a weird question coming from someone who has obviously worked for the other side at some point of time," Kakashi answered. Itachi was quick to notice the small chuckle that came from the man called Sirius Black when Kakashi said this.

However Kakashi continued his speech: "I didn´t mean to offend you though. Sometimes good people make the bad decision when faced with impossible terms. Anyway your best shot of trusting us is to put your faith into Dumbledore just as everyone in this room has done in order to trust you."

"Kakashi-senpai, may I say something too?" Itachi asked his leader politely.

"Aah," Kakashi nodded realizing that the younger ninja must have had something very important to say if he decided to go against his previous orders. But it didn´t matter now anyway as from the facial expression of the people in the room it seemed that he had won them all over with his small speech.

Itachi stood up and looked into the eyes of all the wizards and witches in the room: "I believe right now you all look at me and what you´re thinking is what does this little brat think of himself to want to lecture us adult educated wizards and all. I´m begging you even if just for a little while to throw away these prejudices of your world and listen to what I have to say. This is not really a part of our mission, but I´d still like to say it. As Kakashi-senpai has explained we have both experienced war before in our world and if I understood everything correctly you´re not in a complete war, but just on its brink, and therefore what I want to ask you to do is to take a small moment and try to think whether this war you want to fight is really your only option at this time, whether there still isn´t a different better option to settle this matter. But even if my information is wrong and you´re already at war or if this war is absolutely unavoidable please be sure to fight it so that once it's over you will find actual peace," Itachi finished ignoring Kakashi´s confused expression and the beaming of the wizards.

* * *

><p>"What´s wrong?" Itachi demanded of Harry as he ran into the room accompanied by Kakashi witnessing the sight of Mrs. Weasley standing over what seemed to be some kind of an illusion of Harry´s dead body. He gently pushed Mrs. Weasley aside determined to take care of this genjutsu or what this thing was on his own with his Sharingan or maybe just a simple release would be enough. But the sight in front of him made him freeze, there in sound and color a slightly older Itachi covered in blood was standing over his kneeling little brother. But what made Itachi freeze was the tears and words of his little brother: "Aniki, why? How could you kill everyone?"<p>

Before he could get over his shock he felt himself pushed aside by Kakashi who decided to take over. Slowly the illusion transformed and instead of Itachi and Sasuke there was a younger Kakashi who stood faced towards an equally young boy none other than Uchiha Obito and their female teammate Rin.

"Those who don´t follow the rules are scum," the younger version of Kakashi told the other two and he turned away to walk away from them as the illusion slightly changed now showing Kakashi kneeling over the dead bodies of his former teammates.

"Kai," the older Kakashi whispered trying not to be affected by the sight in front of him and failing miserably. He breathed out a sigh of relief as the thing disappeared in a puff of smoke. Ignoring Harry and Mrs. Weasley who were both starring from Itachi to Kakashi he turned to his young subordinate and asked: "What´s the meaning of that, Itachi? You´ve been behaving rather strangely recently," he commented remembering the speech Itachi gave to the wizards and witches during the meeting earlier.

Itachi finally recovering from his weak moment carefully answered: „I guess it might have shown us that while you´re afraid of turning into the person you´ve once been again, I´m terrified of turning into the person I might one day be forced to become. It also shows the gap between our beliefs. For you the worst thing you´ve ever witnessed is losing a comrade in a fight and that´s why you´d be willing to sacrifice not only your life but also the greater good in order to save someone close to you. I too have seen numerous comrades fall in battle, but to me it was even worse to see so many people no matter whether friends, enemies or bystanders who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time die due to endless wars. In order to prevent that from happening again I am willing not only to sacrifice myself, but also others be it a brother in arms, a friend, a lover or family... Who´s to say that either of these two beliefs is wrong?"

Kakashi thought a while before answering: "I guess there might a bit of truth in both of our beliefs. You claim to be willing to be willing to sacrifice anything and anyone in order to achieve peace yet we both know that there´s a fault in that equation as we have just witnessed that even for you there´s a piece of the puzzle that you seem to value even above peace."

* * *

><p>Review please?:D Arigatou.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Nope, don´t own Harry Potter or Naruto.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read, favoured, alerted and especially reviewed this story. I´m sorry to say that this chapter is a fair bit shorter than the first two, but work´s currently absolutely killing me and it´s a miracle that I managed to come up with this at least.

**CHAPTER III**

„Where´s Tonks?" Harry asked Mrs. Weasley.

„She´s waiting for us," Molly answered as they were approached by an elderly woman.

„Wotcher, Harry...Molly," she smiled at them.

Only as a happy bark escaped Sirius Harry noticed the second figure that was waiting with Tonks, he was a bit older and taller, around Harry´s age and height, but other than that he seemed an awful lot like one the younger of the shinobi pair.

„Konnichiwa, Potter-san, Weasley-san" Harry´s suspicions were confirmed when he heard the deep voice than undoubtedly belonged to the ninja. Harry thought that the voice seemed to fit the older version of Itachi much better than his own eleven year old self.

„Itachi?" Mrs. Weasly asked slightly confused.

„Yup," Tonks answered. „It seems that I´m not the only metamorphmagus in town anymore," she continued beaming at Itachi.

„As I already said, I´m not a metamorphmagus, this is just a simple henge...every shinobi can do this...though the time they can hold the technique varies, it depends on age and skill and especially of the amount of the users cha...magic...but really this is just some of the basics,"

„Wow, you lot are really something, eh?" Tonks asked cheerfully.

„I guess," Itachi answered sheepishly. „But our world is ours and your is yours...you wizards have thought of using your power in so many ways that no shinobi would ever even think off. And this," he pulled his new wand out of his pocket: „shows that they would be able to if they tried."

"That also seems to apply vice versa though," Harry commented.

"I guess," Itachi sighed looking up at the sky.

"We should get moving," Mrs. Weasley finally spoke up.

"You´re right, Molly. Mad-Eye´s gonna make us run some stupid errand for him or something if we arrive late….,"

"They´re over there," Mrs. Weasley smiled as she noticed the group with all the Weasley children still attending Hogwarts and Hermione together with their protectors.

After Moody warned Harry not to stick out and lectured the kids about being careful about what they include in their letters home, he turned to Itachi.

"Where´s the other one? Kakashi?"

"He´s late….as usually," Itachi sighed.

"Not a very reliable guy, that one," Moody growled.

"Ehh, he´s pretty reliable….being late just is one of his quirks…..and when it actually really matters he´s always on time….but that´s not what you wanted to talk to me about, is it, Moody-san?"

Moody lowered his voice: "Keep an eye on them…..especially on Potter and his two friends, they will get themselves into some kind of trouble sooner or later…..probably sooner than later…..also, you guys are warriors…I can see it…I´m one too after all…..I hope you can teach the kids something…."

"Hai, wakarimashita?" Itachi nodded as he followed the others to the train.

"Let´s find a compartment," Harry said.

"Um, Harry, Ron and I have to go to the prefect carriage, " Hermione said sheepishly. "But I don´t think we have to stay the whole way," she added more cheerfully.

"Right, " Harry said quietly.

"Let´s go," Ginny told Harry and Itachi as Ron and Hermione left.

"Hi, Harry…Hi, Ginny," they were greeted by a boy with a round face. "I can´t seem to find a compartment, everywhere´s fully already."

"Hi, Neville," Harry and Ginny greeted him.

Harry noticed Neville was eyeing their third companion and he said: "Oh…this is Itachi Uchiha, Neville and Itachi, this is Neville Longbottom he´s in our house and in my year actually….Itachi is…?" Harry stumbled over his words, not sure what to say.

"I´m a foreign exchange student from Japan…..me and one more student from Konoha Academy of magic will be joining Hogwarts for this years…..I will be in your year and senpai…uh, Kakashi will be in seventh year…Hajimemashite, Neville-kun," Itachi bowed his head slightly, taking Neville by surprise and unsure how to answer.

"Look, there´s only Luna Lovegood in this one," Ginny gestured towards a compartment breaking the ambarassing silence.

"But….," Neville muttered something incomprehensible.

"Don´t be stupid, she´s perfectly normal."

Neville didn´t seem to be convinced by Ginny´s words but he followed Ginny, Harry and Itachi into the compartment anyway.

"Hi, Luna," Ginny said and continued: "Can we sit here?"

The blond haired girl looked up from the magazine, which she was holding upside down and looked Neville over, then her eyes stopped on Neville and then she noticed Itachi. Her eyes were glued to him for a long while and it almost seemed that she wasn´t able to tear her glance away.

"How was your summer?" Ginny asked her breaking the silence once again.

"It was nice," she said as she turned her glance to Harry: "You´re Harry Potter."

"I know, " he answered.

"But I don´t know who you are," she continued turning to Neville.

"Umm, I´m no one."

"Don´t be silly, you´re not. Luna This is Neville Longbottom, he´s also in Gryffindor in Harry´s year. Neville this is Luna Lovegood, she´s in my year in Ravenclaw."

"Wit beyond measure is men´s greatest treasure," she sing-sang dreamily.

Then she turned her attention back to Itachi once again staring at him deeply.

"Are you a hakarira? You have the aura of one….," she finally said dreamily.

"A what?" Itachi asked and noted that the other three wizards seemed to be about as confused as he was himself.

"They´re ancient warriors from Asia…...they have special magic….most of them already died out…..well they were wiped out by wizards to be more precise…..but my daddy says that he met one when he was very young…"

"Ano…I´ve never heard of these hakarira fellows, but I´m from Japan, so that might be it…..my name´s Itachi Uchiha and I will be attending Hogwarts this year as an exchange student this year together with another student from my school…..Konoha Academy of Magic…"

"Speaking of that, where´s Kakashi?" Ginny wondered out loud.

"Who knows," Itachi answered her. "But I´m sure he´ll join us soon….usually he´s two-three hours late at most."

Harry and the other wizards, well all but Luna, sweet dropped and were still surprised that Itachi didn´t seem to be even a tad bit bothered or annoyed by his companions constant lateness.

Speaking of the devil….

"Yo!" a new voice said as Kakashi erupted to the compartment from a puff of smoke.

The occupants of the room observed the newcomer with various degrees of interest. Neville seemed to be a bit frightened by his appearance, Harry was still rather annoyed by the silver haired jounin, while Luna remarked something about some nonexistent magical creature eating away Kakashi´s face and Itachi...well, Itachi didn´t even look up from his book...

"You´re late, senpai," he stated without any emotion.

"Eh, well you see...there was this huge snake in my way, so I had to take a detour..."

While Neville stared at Kakashi probably believing he was serious, Luna just smiled and Harry, who had already witnessed the young ninja´s antics during his stay at Grimmauld Place was not surprised at all. Itachi just continued reading his book silently.

„What, you´re not angry that I´m late?" Kakashi asked him.

„Well, you see, I think anyone who´s known you long enough is already beyond being angry at you being late...the sole reason why they still keep proclaiming you´re late is because they want to hear what kind of absurd excuse have you decided to come up with this time...the only person in the world...in all words, who´d ever bet on you not being late would be Tsunade-sama...and they don´t call her the Legendary Sucker for nothing..."

Kakashi smiled sheepishly under his mask.

Then he noticed the two children he hadn´t met before.

"Hello! I´m Kakashi Hatake, the other exchange student from Japan, I think Itachi probably already explained it all, so…."

"This is Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom, "Ginny explained.

Kakashi nodded and gave them one of his trade mark smiles: "It´s nice to meet you, Luna…Neville…"

The rest of the ride to Hogwarts offered little interesting events to the two shinobi including Harry getting embarrassed infront of the girl he obviously had a crush on while Neville was showing off mimblus mimbletonia-his birthday gift and to everyone´s else surprise both Itachi and Kakashi managed to come out of this situation unharmed thanks to their supernaturally fast reflexes. Other than that they were only joined by Hermione and Ron for the latter part of the ride and the biggest excitement was either Luna´s hysterious laughing at a joke Ron cracked or an absurd article about Sirius´ innocence in the magazine that the strange girl Luna was reading. Well and of course then there was Hermione and Luna almost jumping into each other's hair.

"What´s that?" Harry shrieked looking at the creatures pulling the carriages.

"What´s what?" Ron asked annoyed.

"The horse-like creatures pulling the carriages…can´t you see…," Harry asked.

"Blimey, Harry….are you sure you´re alright?"

"Don´t worry, you´re perfectly normal. I can see them too," Luna told Harry approaching him.

"Yeah, it´s alright…..we can see them too, " Itachi said gesturing towards Kakashi who was wrinkling his nose apparently disgusted by something.

Harry noticed that both Itachi´s eyes had turned crimson red and when he turned to look at Kakashi, the other ninja´s forehead protector was up and he was met with a pair of mismatched eyes and one of them seemed to be almost identical with Itachi´s eyes.

Suddenly Itachi was stroking one of the horses and he smiled slightly: "They seem quite nice."

The other shinobi didn´t seem to be that fond of the creatures as he backed away when one of them tried to lick his hand.

"They reek of death," he muttered darkly and then he turned away from the carriages: "I think I´m gonna use a different route to get there."

"Do as you wish, senpai. And try not to be late for once?" he asked teasingly.

"I might," Kakashi answered jokingly. Then his voice turned more serious and he changed from English to Japanese: "Itachi….are you sure you can spare so much chakra in order to hold this henge for all the time we´re here….even when you´re sleeping….or when we have to fight…?" he asked worriedly.

"I´m not too happy about that either….but I guess it can´t be helped…..with my real appearance I could only pass for a first year, second year at best….and that would be of no use to us….this way I can be everywhere where he is….," Itachi answered thoughtfully, but then he smiled once again and added: "But shouldn´t you be more worried about yourself, senpai? You´ll be in 7th year together with those devilicious twins and they really want to get back at you…."

"Che….that´s about the last thing I worry about…..like I would let them get me. Well, then…ja ne," he told Itachi as the younger ninja stepped into the carriage together with the Golden Trio and Kakashi summoned Pakkun in order to get a better coverage of the grounds.


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: I Don´t own Harry Potter or Naruto. This chapter includes the song of the sorting hat from the chapter The Sorting Hat´s New Song in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, all credit for that belongs to JK Rowling.

A/N: Once again thanks to all who have read, favored and alerted this story. Special thanks belongs to all those who´ve reviewed. Lightningscar, of course, you know I actually meant to do that right from Chapter I, but I always was so tired of typing at the end that I simply forgot, so I´m going to try to be better from now on and every chapter will include a LITTLE JAPANESE CORNER Though I do not speak Japanese, so if you see something wrong with the translations just tell me please.

**CHAPTER IV**

Itachi muted out the conversation between Harry and his friends about the absence of Hagrid, the teacher of care of magical creatures at Hogwarts. Obviously as Kakashi and he were a permanent fixture at the Order meetings during the time of their stay at 12 Grimmauld place the whereabouts of the half-giant were no secret to him, however he had no intention of telling that to Harry or anyone else for that matter. Dumbledore and the rest of the Order definitely had their reasons to withhold this delicate information from them and considering the state of things in this world the less people knew about this the better. Though from the little he gathered about Hag rid, he was almost sure that at least the golden trio as Kakashi had somewhat ironically labeled Harry and his two friends after Itachi forwarded Moody´s words to him, would get to hear the tale of trying to persuade the giants firsthand. It wouldn´t require a genius (though he thought that the girl Hermione could easily be considered one, even if she were born in the shinobi realm) to figure out that Hagrid´s secret task had something to do with the giants and once they´d let it slip that they "knew" about the giants, Hagrid would recount his adventures to them in an instant. When he wanted to join Harry and the Weasley kids at the table that had to belong to one of the Hogwarts houses, Gryffindor he reminded himself of the house that Harry was attending, he noticed Minerva McGonagall, another teacher at Hogwarts and a member of the Order as well, gesturing towards him to join her and the large group of terrified looking kids that were about his age. Those had to be the first years and when he looked them over he concluded that he was really content with his ability to hold the henge for all the time, because he had no desire to spend most of his time at Hogwarts with these gakis. Listening half-heartedly to their conversation and their fantasies about what the sorting would be like (anything from pulling a rabbit out of a hat to fighting a troll) it seemed to him that most of these kids weren´t much more mature than his five year old brother or first year students at the academy at best.

Then he had to remind himself that these children lived their lives without the hardships that met most of the aspiring ninja of his generation in his and other villages, they lived happily with their families and in peace, considering that they were eleven now they were born a few years after the last war of this world ended and therefore the only reminder of the tough times they could have been exposed to was hearing about some relative that they had lost before they even met him. There was no sadness or despair in them; in their eyes he could only see excitement of finally being able to join the world of Hogwarts, a world full of adventures that was inaccessible for them until now. Just with a single look he could tell which of the kids came from muggle families as he could see it in their faces, the inner peace that they finally had found being amongst their own after struggling for their whole life being outcasts, freaks even , desperately trying to fit in to a world they didn´t belong to. For now they all seemed so happy and content, for now they didn´t realize that just shortly after joining this world they or those close to them might be torn away from it...a few weeks ago they might not even have heard of Voldemort or his death eaters...a few weeks ago they might have only heard of war during history classes or in the muggle media as something that happened hundreds of miles away from their homes...most of them probably had no idea that this amazing new world was on the brink of war...and the children coming from the wizarding families probably were no different in most cases...their parents either closed their eyes to the reality, rather accusing Dumbledore of madness and siding with the minister, so scared of giving up the peace that they had worked so hard to build in the past 14 years or others trying to protect their children shielding them away from the gruesome reality...but that all would change soon...Voldemort wouldn´t stay in hiding forever, he would wait for now and gain strength and then he´d attack suddenly and the wizarding world would be absolutely unprepared for his strike...Soon this children would learn the pain of the ones that they felt the most precious to them being torn away from them, soon they would learn death and a few of them would probably stare into its eyes themselves, considering the ways that the wizards fought they might be at least spared from growing up in the bloodshed that he had grown up in...the damage would be unimaginable, especially if the order of the phoenix continued to be the only force trying to fight him...in some ways the conflict between the ministry and Dumbledore strangely reminded him of the relationship between the hokage, the elders and Danzou who had always been silently pulling the strings from the shadows, unknown to all but a few select individuals who were sharp enough not to miss the steps of sandaime´s former rival, Itachi had known this from his mentor Uchiha Shisui and though Shisui seemed to trust the man believing that the well being of Konoha was Danzou´s deepest motivation, Itachi found himself doubting this and wondered whether he wouldn´t one day become a weapon in Danzou´s hands...he was obviously aware that trouble was brewing back home and this time it wasn´t an outside threat rather an inside one...ever since the Kyuubi attack the tension had grown high between the Uchiha clan and the rest of the village and Itachi felt that he would find himself in-between of that all...in the end he´d be forced to choose between the Leaf and his clan...and no matter which one he chose he´d only be leaving tragedy behind himself...it would come sooner than later...it would not just be these happy wizarding kids that would soon be scarred by horrifying events that they currently weren´t even dreaming of in their nightmares...it wouldn´t only be them who´d have the smiles wiped off their faces, the shy smile of his beloved little brother would also soon be wiped off...there was no light ahead for Itachi, only darkness lay ahead...no matter what decision he made he hoped he´d be able to follow in his mentors footsteps...but deep inside he knew that he loved his brother way too much, that in the end he was the one that would hold him back the most...

"Sasuke...," he breathed out in a barely audible whisper.

"Why so serious, Itachi?" Kakashi asked smiling under his mask as he appeared from a puff of smoke, a mild breeze coming with him blowing a few green leafs with him. The eyes of the whole Great Hall were on Kakashi as his entry was the most exciting they had seen since the impostor Moody has arrived exactly a year ago. Most of the students had wondered who the first strange boy standing with the first years was and they were even more shocked by the second one.

"Geez, senpai, I´d swear you´re spending too much time with Gai-senpai...dynamic entry much?" Itachi teased his superior trying to hide his previous thoughts, but fully aware that it was no use as to Kakashi´s eye he was transparent. Few could read people as good as the Copy Ninja. But catching on, Kakashi also knew not to prey too much and therefore he played along with the banter.

"What!" he shrieked somewhat embarrassed. "That´s not it at all! I decided to take a short cut through the lake and let´s just say that I ran into some trouble and that´s why I...ahh, well it doesn´t matter, anyway what are we waiting for?"

Kakashi looked at the old torn hat sitting on a stool that seemed to have the attention of most in the great hall.

"That thing´s got some powerful chakra in it, " he told Itachi.

"Ahh," Itachi agreed scanning the hat with his sharingan.

In that moment Dumbledore stood up from his seat holding his hand up to silence the excited chatter of his students who were either recalling their memories of their holidays to each other or trying to figure out who the two newcomers were.

"Before we start the sorting I have an announcement to make, " the old man started. "I´m delighted to announce that this year will mark the first year of a very unique exchange program between Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Konoha Academy of Magic from Japan. Most of you have been here last year when our home became home for students from two other schools and I hope you will embrace our two exchange students Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha as you have the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang last year. In order to get the real experience of Hogwarts they will be both sorted by the Sorting Hat into houses and take part in all the activities of our own students in 5th and 7th year respectively. And now, I´m leaving the word to the Sorting hat."

**In ****times of old when I was new,**

**And Hogwarts barely started,**

**The founders of our noble school,**

**Thought never to be parted,**

**United by a common goal,**

**They had the selfsame yearning,**

**To make the world's best magic school,**

**And pass along their learning.**

"**Together we will build and teach!"**

„I guess these founders are their version of the Sage of Six Paths, eh?" Itachi whispered.

**The four good friends decided,**

**And never did they dream,**

**That they might someday be divided,**

**For were there such friends anywhere,**

**As Slytherin and Gryffindor?**

„Hmm, it seems kind of tough to imagine that those two were friends...," Itachi mused as the tension between the students from the two houses seemed impossible not to catch.

„I think it means a different kind of friends...probably not unlike Jirayia-sama and Orochimaru...or maybe the Shodaime hokage and Uchiha Madara...more of a rivalry than friendship, each having their own way of doing things, but still having nothing but great respect for each other," Kakashi commented.

**Unless it was the second pair**

**Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?**

**So how could it have gone so wrong?**

**How could such friendships fail?**

**Why, I was there and so can tell, **

**The whole sad, sorry tale.**

**Said Slytherin. "We´ll just those whose**

**Ancestry is purest."**

**Said Ravenclaw, "We´ll teach those whose**

**Intelligence is surest."**

**Said Gryffindor, "We´ll teach all those**

**With brave deeds to their name."**

**Said Hufflepuff, "I´ll teach the lot,**

**And treat them just the same."**

„That seems kind of stupid...well asides from what Hufflepuff said...pretty much they just probably wanted to teach those that were like themselves...but you can gain strength if you learn from those who think differently than you do...," Itachi mused.

„Hai...but isn´t it the same what we do? Each year 27 young children graduate the Academy only so that the jounin assigned to them can fail 2/3 of them if they don´t deem them to be worthy enough to b e shinobi...pretty much if those young children don´t have the same idea of being a ninja as their instructor has they have little chance to pass the exam...," Kakashi sighed.

**These differences caused little strife,**

**When first they came to light,**

**For each of the four founders had**

**A house in which they might**

**Take only those they wanted,**

**So, for instance, Slytherin**

**Took only pure-blood wizards**

**Of great cunning, just like him,**

**And only those of sharpest mind**

**Were taught by Ravenclaw**

**While the bravest and the boldest**

**Went to daring Gryffindor.**

**Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,**

**And taught them all she knew,**

**Thus the houses and their founders**

**Retained friendships firm and true.**

**So Hogwarts worked in harmony**

**For several happy years,**

**But then discord crept among us**

**Feeding on our faults and fears.**

**The houses that, like pillars four, **

**Had once held up our school,**

**Now turned upon each other and,**

**Divided, sought to rule.**

**And for a while it seemed the school**

**Must meet an early end,**

**What with dueling and with fighting**

**And the clash of friend on friend**

**And at last there came a morning**

**When old Slytherin departed**

**And though the fighting then died out**

**He left us quite down hearted.**

**And never since the founders four**

**Were whittled down to three**

**Have the houses been united**

**As they once were meant to be.**

**And now the Shorting Hat is here**

**And you all know the score:**

**I sort you into houses**

**Because that is what I´m for,**

**But this year I´ll go further, **

**Listen closely to my song:**

**Though condemned I am to split you**

**Still I worry that it´s wrong,**

**Though I must fulfill my duty**

**And must quarter every year**

**Still I wonder whether Sorting**

**May not bring the end I fear.**

**Oh, know the perils, read the signs, **

**The warning history shows,**

**For our Hogwarts is in danger**

**From external, deadly foes**

**And we must unite insider her**

**Or we´ll crumble from within**

**I have told you, I have warned you...**

**Let the Sorting begin.**

"Seems like a smart advice…..especially coming from a hat," Itachi whispered.

"Ahh, but it´s hard to imagine there will be enough of those to follow that ideal….I´m sure what the Sage of Sixth Paths had in mind for the ninja world was no different from what the hat says…..,"

Kakashi´s words were interrupted by McGonagall telling them to go sit on the stool and put the hat on when their name was called. The two exchange students would be sorted before the first years.

"Itachi, the chakra of the hat…..," Kakashi started.

"Hai, it seems that the founders put their chakra into it….," Itachi continued for him.

"Yeah, it´s a pretty powerful force…..still I think there are things that the hat doesn´t need to know."

"Wakarimashita."

"HATAKE KAKASHI!" McGonagall called.

As Kakashi walked towards the stool he noticed that all eyes in the room were set on him, but he noted the special interest that Harry and the others who already knew him took in his sorting. He figured that they´d be much more interested in his sorting than Itachi´s as they probably fought that they had the younger ninja all figured out, not realizing that they only saw of the young Itachi what he allowed them to see. Kakashi couldn´t blame them though, Itachi could probably fool or maybe already fooled even people he was much closer to and ones that were much more educated when it come to deception. He himself though had also only let them see little glimpses of who he really was and therefore he wouldn´t surprise him if they had pinned him down as a Slytherin. But he wasn´t planning on joining the house with the snake anytime soon.

"Hmmm…..very interesting…..a shinobi…it´s been a while…..though I´m not surprised, obviously I hear all kinds of things in Dumbledore´s office…."

Kakashi wasn´t surprised at all when the hat started talking to him, obviously reading his thoughts, leaking only some pictures of his memories that he thought the hat needed to see to him.

"Very brave I see…you´d do anything to protect your comrades…very sharp too, a genius, are you?….but you´re hiding things from me, aren´t you?"

Kakashi answered calmly: "I wouldn´t really say hiding….I´m just showing you what you need to see….I´m making your job easier actually…"

"There´s blood on your hands though," the hat remarked as Kakashi showed him a few of his memories of the war.

"There´s blood on my hands indeed…..there´s been blood on my hands for years…..I make no secret of it, you´d never be able to see those memories otherwise…but I think you can see that I do not spill blood for pleasure…..I only spill blood when it´s needed in order to protect….. you see it yourself, there are tough times ahead for your people…..you live in Dumbledore´s office, so you know where I need to be…."

"Well then, if that´s how it is…GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted as the table of said house erupted in great cheers and to Harry´s astonishment Kakashi sat down at their table. Maybe the ninja was different that he first had thought….? His thoughts were interrupted by McGonagall´s shout.

"UCHIHA ITACHI!"

The hat barely touched Itachi´s head as it shouted GRYFFINDOR. Or so it seemed to everyone watching on.

"Ahh, and Uchiha," the hat had told him. "Oh my…..I ´ve never seen such bravery, boy…..even one of my makers Godric Gryffindor wasn´t…." the hat trailed off as it read Itachi´s mind and one particular thought that the young Uchiha decided to share with it.

Itachi slowly stood up and sat on Kakashi´s left at the Gryffindor table and followed the rest of the sorting.

Then his attention turned to the conversation Harry and co were having about the sorting hat´s song and he wasn´t surprised at all to find out that the boy or anyone else in Gryffindor didn´t have any desire to be friends with the Slytherins. He was sure that this feeling was even stronger with the Slytherins. He wondered whether he should join in and comment, but then he noticed that Kakashi was too listening and opened his mind to speak, his voice so low that only the select few could hear: "Rivalry is a strange thing…..but I thought you were supposed to be some kind of a savior in this world, Potter…..if even you can´t get over those differences where will it lead your world?...You don´t have to be the best of friends with the Slytherins, if you only manage to achieve mutual respect for each other is enough…hatred is no solution…..hatred only breeds more hatred…."

Kakashi´s words had once again silenced Harry and everyone else.

"That sounds true, senpai…though when you think of it, the only thing that breeds more hatred than hatred itself is love, isn´t it?" Itachi mused as he looked up at the ceiling covered by the stars.

The philosophy talk between the two ninja that seemed to have mesmerized the whole Gryffindor table was stopped when the sorting was finally over and Dumbledore stood up to welcome the students and begin the feast. However he was interrupted by the toad like woman, who seemed like in an intruder at Hogwarts to Itachi. From the reactions of the young wizards and the teachers he gathered that such speeches as she gave were anything but common practice here and that almost everyone saw it as a great insult to Dumbledore. About half through the woman´s speech Itachi found himself dosing off and he noticed that his superior had once again taken out his favorite book out of his pocket. He thanked Gods that no one at the table was probably able to understand Japanese and therefore the topic of his superior´s perverted preferences for literature would be avoided for now. Well, if Jírayia-sama hadn´t decided to put in too graphic pictures. Seeing the book though, he was tempted to take out his copy of Hogwarts, A History that Hermione had borrowed him back at 12 Grimmauld Place.

"….very illuminating…," he heard Dumbledore say and then Hermione echoed his words.

"You´re right, Hermione," Kakashi said closing his book. "It seems your Ministry is pretty much trying to infiltrate Hogwarts you could say."

Later Hermione and Ron left to lead the first years to the Gryffindor common room as Itachi and Kakashi joined Harry on their way there. Only there they found out that Harry didn´t know the password, so there was no way the Fat Lady would let them in. But in the end they were saved as Neville arrived, seemingly very happy with himself as he told them he knew the password and that it was Mimbulus Mimbletonia.

Once inside Kakashi followed the Weasley twins to the 7th year dorm, but before that he turned to Itachi: "Don´t forget, we have to be in Dumbledore´s office tomorrow at eight."

"Ryokai. I´ll be there." Itachi nodded. "But will you…?" he asked smiling slightly.

"Hai, hai, why wouldn´t I be?" Kakashi answered lazily.

"Ja….will you be there….on time, senpai?"

He wasn´t surprised when he got no answer.

* * *

><p>The first week at Hogwarts went quite peacefully for the two Konoha shinobi, though sometimes Itachi felt a bit overwhelmed by his duties as the Hogwarts teachers seemed to have much less patience with his superiors constant lateness and even less understanding for his absurd excuses than the superiors back home had. But that was obviously no surprise as the people hear had little knowledge of Kakashi´s motives while back home while unspoken of it was common knowledge that it was all a memento of a lost comrade. Thus, Kakashi found himself in detention during his free time more often than not and Itachi was left to follow and protect Harry most of the time, which wasn´t half bad as he probably would have went almost anywhere Harry went anyway even with Kakashi there and Harry hadn´t managed to get himself into much trouble except for the occasional fight as with the boy Seamus during their first evening at Hogwarts or with Umbridge, which landed him in detention for the whole first week together with Kakashi. What kept Itachi even busier was planning out the second part of their task…Silently, he cursed Umbridge as he waited outside her office waiting for Kakashi´s and Harry´s detention to be over….<p>

When they finally came out Itachi could see that the Copy Ninja was obviously irritated by something behind his calm exterior.

"Daijoubou ka, senpai?" he asked in Japanese.

"Ahh, daijoubou," he answered slowly. "Itachi you haven´t copied some medical ninjutsu by any chance with your sharingan?"

"Uhm, I thought it was impossible to copy….," Itachi started a bit confused.

"It sure is for me…..but for you…..I wouldn´t be so sure…..everything seems possible with your eyes…..well, then, anyway, I guess we´ll have to find a magical way to take care of this, " he said as he forcefully took hold of Harry´s hand despite his protests and revealed the back of the wizard´s hand. I MUST NOT TELL LIES. The words glowed at Itachi.

"How original," Itachi commented. "I think I´ve read about this one things that might help….what about you though?" he asked.

"Nah, I just played a little with her….that magical quill of hers works here, but just a little chakra and its disrupted…..must have ruined about a dozen of those today…..handy thing for her, but nothing compared to Ibiki´s toys…..or the ones that the interrogation squad of Iwa likes to play with for that matter," he commented tracing one particularly visible scar on his finger, one of the many reminders of torture.

"Once Itachi takes care of that, I´ll teach you how to handle that quill…..gotta go, I´ve still got two hours of detention with Snape ahead of me…..and I´m late….well, ja ne…."

Itachi shook his head: "Why am I not surprised?"

* * *

><p>"We need a place to teach the way of war," Itachi repeated the mantra in his head as he walked along the corridor trying to phrase what they needed as best as he could recalling the conversation Kakashi and he had with Dumbledore during the first day of school.<p>

"_I think you already know why you´re here," Dumbledore started. "As you remember the mission I required consists of two parts. The first one is to protect Harry Potter and the school and now it´s time to arrange the details for the second part. As your hokage has previously explained only few of us wizards have the ability to mold and manipulate chakra, therefore the first task of your mission will be to find the students of this school that are able to. It shouldn´t pose any problem for you with the sharingan. This select few will then become your students and you can reveal your identity to them…..thought of course only if they wish to…..your mission will be to teach them the ways of war…..I will not tell you as far you can go with teaching jutsus as such as I´m not sure myself how much you can disclose without it being considered treason…..but there´s one tiny little problem with all this…," he sighed._

"_Let me guess….her name´s Dolores Umbridge."_

"_Yes, as sharp as expected, Kakashi. For now I will take care of that, but I hope you understand that for now no word of this conversation can leave this room. I´ve created a spell or more of a seal that will prevent the students from leaking any information and if they decided to not take part in after the first lesson or later on, they will forget about it all… You have one week to find the students and you will give your first lesson on Sunday in the room of requirement…"_

Finally, Itachi found himself in a large roomthat seemed to be full of scrolls about manipulating chakra and such, shinobi history, strategy planning and even a board for go and shougi. As the first students streamed in obviously having little to no idea what was awaiting them he smiled at them welcoming them and telling them to sit down on the futons that lay on the ground. Harry and his two friends greeted him and sat down as Hermione already had one of the books in her hands reading and Harry looked at Itachi knowingly: "I guess now we´ll wait for Kakashi for a while, right?"

* * *

><p>LITTLE JAPANESE CORNER<p>

senpai-senior

hai- yes

wakarimashita- understood

ryokai- roger

ja- then

daijoubou ka?- are you all right?

ja ne- see you

A/N: Uhm, I think this is the longest chapter I´ve ever written of anything, the muse really kicked in tonight, so be nice and reward me…..with reviews, ne?:D


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Nope, don´t own HP nor Naruto. Would you believe that! Shannaro!

A/N: I´m so sorry it took so long to update, but I´ve been pretty busy and even though I started this chapter already about a week ago I couldn´t really get into writing up until today. However I´ve got some free time now, so hopefully the next chapter will follow soon, neh?:D Thanks to all who´ve read, favorite, alerted this story and special thanks to ladyyuuki16, Ice Vixen X, Lightningscar, SilverLunaMoon and SeaweedBrainWon for reviewing :)

**CHAPTER V**

Kakashi stared at his reflection in the huge lake, water mixed with a little blood dripping down his face and his ANBU uniform, his hitai-ate pushed up and good eye tightly closed, only the crimson red of the Sharingan looking back at him. This is bad, he thought, I´ve gone on without serious training for way too long for such a small workout to wear me out like this as he opened his grey eye and pushed his forehead protector back down to cover his Sharingan. How long has it been since they had left Konoha? It must have been almost a month now, thirty long days without any serious practice, thirty days without a fight, thirty days without shedding blood other than his own when he pushed himself way too hard in training as he had just now. But most importantly thirty long days without visiting the memorial commemorating the shinobi who were killed in action.

"I´m sorry, I couldn´t visit you, Obito….Rin…..Sensei….," he whispered in Japanese.

Still, it doesn´t excuse me for not talking to you, eh Obito? It´s just that this place….well, I don´t know….it´s different than our world…..I´m not sure whether it´s a good or bad thing yet…..but there´s something that has been troubling me for the past few days…I can sense it, almost smell it in the air, but I can´t figure it out and it drives me crazy…..

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud bark: "Oi, Kakashi," Pakkun started: "don´t you have somewhere to be?"

Kakashi sighed and looked at his most trusted ninken: "Sou desu ne?"

"Hurry up, you´re late already," the dog said and when Kakahi just smirked, he continued: "yeah, yeah, right, you´re always late anyway, but you have something or rather somebody pretty nasty to take care of first, ne?"

"Hai, hai, I´m going already," he answered to his ninken as he gave one last look to the lake and the nearby forest. I´ll be damned if I don´t figure out what´s wrong here sooner or later, he thought surprisingly not noticing the small figure standing against one of the trees of the Forbidden Forest.

He wondered whether he should pay a visit to the Gryffindor dorm for a change of clothes as an ANBU uniform might in this world look frightening enough without being half covered by the blood of its owner. He threw the idea aside as it might yet prove to be a very good tool for Itachi´s and his lesson and might help intimidate the annoying gakis.

But first things first, as Pakkun had said he had to take care of one thing before he even arrived at the Room of Requirement.

He rounded the corridor and finally found whom he was looking for. The bloody toad was in what seemed like an innocent conversation with Severus Snape, one of the teachers that was also a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Kakashi was no fool and therefore he was quick to realize that Snape´s presence at this place at this very moment was no coincidence and that rather it was yet another proof of Dumbledore´s geniality as the man had thought beforehand and had secured that at this very moment professor Umbridge would be lead straight to Kakashi. He approached slowly listening to the conversation from afar and while Umbridge might have thought otherwise he realized that Snape was in full control of the direction the conversation was taking. The young ninja felt slightly uneasy trusting this man as the aura of treachery was all around him, but at the same time he could recognize only loyalty towards the school´s headmaster, yes this man was as loyal to his headmaster as only very few shinobi would be towards their kage.

"Sumimasen…..excuse me….," Kakahsi addressed the two teachers coming closer to them. While Snape made sure that not even his face betrayed any surprise at Kakashi suddenly standing a few paces from them, whether because his hearing was so good that he managed to hear even Kakashi´s soundless footsteps or because he was such a great actor, Kakashi didn´t know. However the other teacher was a completely different story as the shriek she left out almost made his eardrum tear.

He stood motionlessly as he waited for the old toad to calm down, politely not looking at her face and pretending to be very interested in one of the suits of armors standing in the corridor. For a split second he would have sworn that it had actually blinked at him.

Finally, Umbridge managed a return, her face now as cold as stone, betraying no emotions, she turned to Kakashi and spoke: "Ah, Mr. Hatake, what a pleasure…..I have been meaning to talk to you for a while now…..maybe you´d fancy a cup of tea in my office, my dear?"

She shot him the sweetest smile, that kind of smile that only a select few could master and even less people could see through its fakeness. For Kakashi was a genius he could decipher the meaning of this one smile very well, it confirmed all of the feelings and impressions he had had so far of this woman. Yes, Professor Dolores Umbridge, you´re a merciless blood hungry bitch.

Before Kakashi could answer, Snape cleared his throat and told Umbridge: "Dolores, I think you´ll excuse me now….."

Before he could say anymore he was interrupted by Umbdrige´s "oh, yes, of course" in the sweetest one again. For a moment so brief that Kakashi was absolutely positive that the woman could not have known about it, Snape´s eyes and his dark grey one met. No words were said between the two, but the message the older man was sending him was clear. Take care of her.

As Kakashi heard Snape´s footsteps slowly disappear somewhere in the corridor behind him, he locked his gaze with Umbridge and before he gave the chance to speak out once more he pushed his hitai ate up and the ministry employee found herself staring into the three spinning tomoes of Kakashi´s Sharingan. He had to bottle up the desire that he had to cause this woman pain for all the evil that she had already caused and for the dark deeds she would inevitably commit in the future. I have no other way but to follow the wishes of my employer for that is my duty as a shinobi, a hired mercenary. I am but a tool to accomplish this mission he reminded himself. There were only two exceptions that would prevent young Hatake Kakahsi from strictly following this code. Had this woman posed a danger to Konoha or the Land of Fire it would be his duty as an inheritor of the Will of Fire to eliminate her or would she endanger the wellbeing of his comrades he would be ready to strike against him no matter what the cost. He might have been foolish once upon a time and it was impossible to influence or change the outcome of the events caused by his foolishness, but Obito had taught him a very important lesson prior to his death and he considered it his duty to follow by the ideals of Uchiha Obito, the ninja willing to crush the idea of being a shinobi if it meant leaving his comrades behind. Yes, for now, you´re luck, Dolores Umbridge…..but if you continue as you have started you will inevitably overstep and if I´m still here that day I will kill you with my own hands for sure….

For now he had to be content with implanting a few more friendly images into the women´s head as he thought of one of his first missions with Minato-sensei that included looking after a bunch of cats. Surely, this person is a cats person and it would explain part of the resentment I feel towards her, eh?

He watched as Umbridge´s face formed into a smile that no lunatic in the world, or any of them for that matter would be ashamed of and he could see the gleam in her eyes as she said:

"Oh, I´m sorry, what was I saying? I totally forgot I have to feed my cats, yes I must feed the cats in an instant….," she said turning away from Kakashi running down the corridor towards the nearest steps and Kakashi would almost swear that he heard a soft meow escaping her lips. He shook his head thinking that maybe he went a bit overboard as he turned to finally make his way to his destination.

* * *

><p>Kakashi walked into the Room of Requirement and searched for his teammate in the dimly lit room until he found him standing against the wall in one of the corners, relaxed and talking to the kids from Grimmauld Place easily.<p>

He noticed Kakahsi sooner before anyone else in the room and scanned him with his eyes rising one of his eyebrows slightly at his seniors rugged and bloody appearance.

"Yare, yare….should I even say it, senpai?" he asked leading all the children in the room to shift their attention from Itachi to Kakashi.

"You´re late, Kakashi," Hermione said instead smiling from Itachi to Kakashi.

"Eh? Etoo…well, you see this huge old toad stood in my way, so I had to eliminate it first…."

"Well, I guess we´re all currently in favor of eliminating toads, don´t you agree, Fred?"

"Oh, yes, of course," the other twin answered.

"You look like hell, mate," Ron told him not minding any manners as per usual.

"Well, I´ve looked worse…..," Kakashi started.

"Can we get this over with," the unmistakable arrogant voice of the tall blond Slytherin Draco Malfoy came from the other corner of the room. "I´m not sure how long I can survive in such a confined space with mudbloods and traitors and weirdos," he said in a mocking voice looking from Hermione to the Weasleys and Harry and to the two shinobi.

In split seconds the Gryffindors has their wands drawn, some of the students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff joining them as well and the ones that didn´t dare to take out their weapon at least came closer to the group creating kind of a wall between them. The few Slytherins stood facing them, outnumbered five to one and looking incredibly weak without Crabbe and Goyle standing in front of their leader Malfoy as the two weren´t between those picked by Kakashi and Itachi to join their lessons.

"," Kakashi started icily his dark grey eye boring deeply into the boys´ light eyes: "I assure you I have no desire to spend my time confined in a room with snaky power hungry brats either, but we´re all here on the headmasters orders. And as long as you´re a student of this school you will obey by the headmasters orders. Wakarimasu ka?"

All the time while they talked they also fought a silent battle with their gazes for as long as Malfoy had no other choice but surrender to the shinobi´s gaze as Kakashi would not blink or look away no matter what as patience had been engraved into him during his training way too deeply.

One of the Slytherin girls lightly touched the sleeve of Malfoy´s habit: "Draco, maybe we should just leave."

He gave her a short look and then turned back to gaze at Kakahsi and Itachi. "No, we´re staying, " he said. If I am smart enough I might be able to use this as a good opportunity to find out more about those two and then father could report it to the dark lord, which would leave him in an even higher regard. Yes, I will certainly use this in order to obtain power. Be Potter and all the other traitors and mudbloods damned. I will survive a few more hours with them and I will use it to my good. Isn´t that the same things that Snape´s doing as well after all?

Kakashi could clearly see the wheels in the boys´ head turning as he finally spoke out: "No, we´re staying."

All of the Slytherin students looked at him astonished, but decided to follow none the less as if Malfoy´s words were to be considered an order for them. A brief look was exchanged between the two ninja, the meaning clear- let´s keep a look on him, obviously he´s decided to pose as some kind of a spy.

"Yosh," Kakashi called out suddenly smiling, dispersing all the tension in the room. "We should start finally, neh?"

Most of the students were looking at him warily since as warm his demeanor might have been they were still baffled by his rugged appearance and the blood he was covered by.

"Ohh, I´m sorry, you´ll have to excuse my appearance…you see I had a run in with some kind of a strange being…..a blast ended skrewt it was I believe?...very nasty things those…."

Everyone but the Slytherins laughed mildly, but it was only halfhearted as the students who´d been graced with the opportunity to share some time with the skrewts by Hagrid last year knew very well that Kakashi´s injuries didn´t fit with an attack of a skrewt at all.

"Well then, where should I begin…..first things first I guess let´s start with introductions….I guess you all by now know that my name´s Hatake Kakashi. Or Kakashi Hatake as you´d say to be more precise. And that this is Itachi Uchiha. The thing most of you might not know yet….or might not know for sure yet is that Itachi and I are no exchange students. In fact we´re actually shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village from the Fire Country?"

"Shinobi?" "Hidden Leaf?" Fire Country"

Itachi raised his hand to silence the crowd: "I´m sure all your questions will be answered by Kakahsi-senpai or me sooner or later," he smiled.

But as the English kids had little idea about respect they still kept bombarding them with questions.

"Why do you always say sanpay when you talk to or about Kakashi?" Ernie McMillan wanted to know.

"Where we come from we are taught to have a great respect for our seniors from a very young age and it is considered good manners to be polite when you talk to them."

"Hai, hai. Some manage to go overboard with being polite, neh? Like young Itachi here for example, despite the fact that I have told him numerous time that I personally do not put much importance on the whole kohai or senpai stuff , he still insists on referring to me as such. You might not yet realize it, but it does make one feel pretty old sometimes, neh?"

The laughs were more sincere this time. Originally Kakashi and Itachi has feared that the lesson would become boring for most students and that they would be met with demands to showcase and teach jutsus immediately, but surprisingly the young wizards seemed to have a great interest in hearing the way the shinobi world worked for as long as they were allowed the courtesy to be the ones asking the questions.

When all question regarding fighting that the boys had been very eager to hear the answers to were finally answered, Hermione who had be silent for most of the time had finally spoken up.

"Is there some kind of philosophy or religion you believe in…..surely you must when you have all that blood on your hands…..no offense," she added fearing that her words might have hurt their new comrades.

Both only smiled: "Iie, it´s nothing," Kakashi said shaking his head, then he continued: "I believe in Hi no Ishi…"

"Hi no Ishi?" Ginny asked for a translation or explanation and Kakashi could see that he now had the attention of most who had started to silently chatter after Hermione had asked her question finding it boring.

"Ahh, hi no ishi or The Will of Fire….It´s a philosophy that was created by one of the founders of our village and it´s first Hokage, leader Hashirama Senju. It´s a spiritual heritage that is passed down from generation to generation, it´s the belief that love is the key to peace. From what I understand it´s not that different from the beliefs of your headmaster. Though in Konoha the Will of Fire also means the willingness of its shinobi to fight in order to protect the village and make great unimaginable sacrifices and also to ensure that the next generation is protected and the Will of Fire is passed down to the shinobi of that generation. If Konoha shinobi were pieces in a chess game, the next generation would be the king. For example a few years ago there was a grave danger to Konoha and while Itachi was still too young, I was already a high ranking ninja, a jounin, still both I and other shinobi of my age were restrained from fighting against that enemy."

Hermione turned her gaze from Kakashi to Itachi: "And what about you? Do you also believe in the Will of Fire?"

Itachi sighed and thought a while before answering, well aware that except for the eyes of all the children Kakashi´s grey eye was also gazing at him deeply, almost through him, obviously expecting what kind of answer he would come up with as Itachi´s heritage, the fact that he was an Uchiha should make Itachi´s beliefs different from Kakashi´s. Itachi could almost see the question in Kakashi´s eyes. Well, which is it- do you believe in hi no ishi or is it nikushimi no noroi? Is it love or hatred? Which one do you choose, Itachi? If you can choose at all, that is. If destiny won´t prevent you from making your own choice.

"Who knows….," he finally started. "I love our village more than almost anything else and I´d give my life to protect it and I´m also willing to undergo sacrifices in order to protect the village and its peace…..but at the same time, I have to think…..this love that protects our village doesn´t it at the same time breed hatred elsewhere?"

There might not be any other shinobi as smart and as skilled as you will be one day, Itachi, Kakashi thought. Still, it is such a shame and such a waste that it will probably only result in some kind of a disaster down the line when he remembered the tension , which had grown between the Uchihas and the rest of the village since the Kyuubi attack. When he woke from his thoughts, he decided it´d be for the best to dismiss the class.

"Yosh, that´s it for today," he smiled brightly at his new students. "Next week, same place same time. And don´t forget that once you´ve signed the paper that you got from Professor Dumbledore with the invitation here you´re bound to be silent about our little meetings. You all knows Dumbledore´s powers fairly well, so you can imagine the consequences if you were to talk. If you decide not to sign, please, just leave this room and you´ll never know that anything happened tonight. You have 10 minutes to decide."

"Well then," he turned to Itachi: "it´s about time to start your training to, isn´t it, Itachi?"

"Maybe we should wait until tomorrow. It looks like you´ve pushed yourself pretty hard tonight, senpai. You don´t want to risk chakra exhortation, do you? You wouldn´t want to end up in the hospital during our first month, neh?"

"Why should I end up in the hospital?" he asked mildly offended.

"Because, Kakashi," Pakkun who had been guarding the room in the shadows suddenly barked out: "in the end you always push yourself way too hard and end up there and this lad and everyone else in Konoha knows that, neh?"

"The d..d..dog….it just talked," a first year Hufflepuff cried out.

"It did just talk, didn´t it?" Kakashi asked turning to Itachi

"Hai, it sure did talk." Itachi answered as both ninja attempted to keep their expressions cool and as the dogs face turned into one of annoyance. Better order him elsewhere before he decides to bite her ass, Kakashi thought.

* * *

><p>Itachi and Kakashi stood in a small clearing in the forest facing each other.<p>

"Let´s have a taijutsu fight…..Sharingan allowed," he started pushing his forehead protector up to uncover his eye as Itachi activated it in both of his eyes: "no genjutsu or ninjutsu allowed. There´s no reason for me to train you in genjutsu as your skills already far outreach mine, after all you´ve been taught by the greatest genius of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Shisui. I know you prefer genjutsu….or better said you prefer not to fight at all…and I fully understand….however…..the assassination in ANBU is there for a reason…some days you´ll have no other choice but to kill….."

"Ahh….I know," Itachi answered bowing his head as both positioned themselves to strike.

Two hours and hundreds of kicks and hits later they both stood again worn out breathing harshly.

"That should be enough for today…..," Kakashi trailed off turning towards one of the trees behind him.

"Nan desu ka?" Itachi asked, alert at once.

"Nan demo nai," Kakashi shook his head. "Go back to the caste, Itachi. I´m gonna stay behind for a while."

"But," the younger ninja started to protest.

"It´s an order, Itachi!"

"Hai," Itachi moved at once as it was highly unusual for the Copy Ninja to order him to do something and in the rare case when he did it was better to obey.

When Itachi was far away from the forest, Kakashi hold up his right hand, concentrating as the silence of the cold night was cut by the sound of chirping birds, the moon shining brightly.

"Come out!" he called to the dark figure hiding behind the tree.

The hooded figure appeared before Kakashi in an instant, faster even than his teacher´s shintenshin no jutsu and before the Copy Ninja well known for his speed in the shinobi world could even think about reacting, he found himself falling to his knees all power escaping him. A sharp scream of the young ninja pierced through the night before his head collided with the ground.

* * *

><p>A cliffhanger, hehe. What do you think will happen next? And who attacked Kakashi? Can you tell?<p>

LITTLE JAPANESE CORNER

sou desu ne

hai- yes

sumimasen- excuse me

yare yare- my, my

wakarimasu ka?- do you understand?

hi no ishi- the will of fire

nikushimi no noroi- the curse of hatred

nan desu ka?- what is it?

nan demo nai- it´s nothing


End file.
